YA Book Review: I'll Get There. It Better be Worth the Trip.

YA Book Review: I'll Get There. It Better be Worth the Trip.
By John Donovan

The story follows Davy, a 13 year old boy who was raised by his grandmother, beginning immediately after her death. My first impression was that it is a very literary, teachable, and relevant to modern teens despite being written over 40 years ago.

The focus of the book is relationships, and how Davy relates to the people in his life--his irresponsible mother, his busy father, his best friend, and most importantly his dog Fred. I knew that Fred was going to die from the moment I realized how important he was to Davy, but I still cried like a baby when it happened.  (And I'm very strictly a cat person.) Davy moves to New York and is thrust into a new school, a new city, and a new way of life. Those themes on their own are resonant and realistically portrayed, but what made this book famous was the fact that it was the first YA book to deal with teen homosexuality.


I haven't read a lot of YA fiction that deals with homosexuality, so I can't rate it against what else is out there, but I was impressed with how natural but non-explicit the relationship was, and how profoundly it affected the main character. His guilt, his confusion, and his friend's reaction to what happened between them are all very poignant.

I enjoyed this book immensely, and I don't think that this book should be only for homosexual teens--there is so much more to it than just a coming-out story, just like there is so much more to a person than his or her sexual orientation. Davy is a complicated character whose hardships a confusion over a first relationship are easy to identify with. The writing is beautiful, and the lessons are worth learning. This has the makings of a classic.